


Five reasons that writing fanfic is fun (for me)

by Shadowscast_meta (Shadowscast)



Series: Writing about writing [3]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), No Fandom, Once a Thief (TV)
Genre: Gen, Meta, Nonfiction, Writing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:09:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22979662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowscast/pseuds/Shadowscast_meta
Summary: I want to reflect on some of the things that make writing fanfic, specifically, fun.
Series: Writing about writing [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1651483
Kudos: 2
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge





	Five reasons that writing fanfic is fun (for me)

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted here: <https://shadowscast.dreamwidth.org/111665.html>
> 
> Uploaded to AO3 on 2020-03-01.

**1) I get to write about characters that I'm already interested in.**

I mean, in a sense this is one of the ways that fanfic really is a cheat, compared to original fiction—you don't have to build your own lovable characters, you just start with some already pre-assembled. But whatever, the whole point is that I'm doing this for fun, and writing about characters I'm already in love with is fun!

**2) It's fun to write in relationship with canon.**

One of my favourite things about writing (and reading) fanfic is that it _doesn't_ stand alone—it builds on canon, or draws on it.

One thing I enjoy is thinking about specific canonical moments that justify the characterization I'm employing in my stories. Part of this might be an old habit as a slash writer: "Okay, so these guys aren't explicitly in love in canon, but let me present you with a lengthy list of tiny subtle clues that suggest that they _could_ be!" So for instance (non-romantically), in my most recent Once A Thief story, I gave Li Ann a line where she dissed Mac (affectionately) by saying that he couldn't memorize a map to save his life. And this is certainly a thing that feels like it would be true about him, based on his characterization in general. But also there's a specific moment in canon where he's breaking into a house by himself, with fancy night-ops gear and an automatic grappling hook, and he's carrying a big rolled-up floor plan of the house, which he keeps _stopping_ to _consult_. When I watched that episode recently with a friend, she commented bemusedly that he really should have memorized the plans ahead of time. And so, with glee, I put that line, and that explicit characterization, into my fic.

It's also really fun to extrapolate logically from canon. For instance, what happens to vampires when the ambient temperature goes below freezing? This is never addressed in Buffy canon, as far as I can recall; the show is set in southern California! In my Buffyverse fic, I've made the assumption that vampires would obey Newton's law of cooling, and if they were in a below-freezing environment for long enough they would freeze solid. But then when they thawed out again, they'd be fine!

Harry Potter fic, by the way, tends to be full of _wonderful_ examples of fic authors extrapolating aspects of the universe. I have read many astoundingly delightful fanfic interpretations of the inner workings of Wizarding bureaucracy!

And it's particularly fun to seed little mysteries into a fanfic text, where the reader needs to know something from canon in order to determine what's really going on. For instance, (a long time ago!) I wrote a Spike/Giles story called [It Never Happened](https://archiveofourown.org/works/74100/chapters/98256), which was set during the summer between seasons 5 and 6 (that is, while Buffy was dead). There's a moment in the fic when Ethan Rayne reveals that Willow gave him an object that he needed for his complicated revenge plot against Giles. And Ethan says to Giles: "You should ask your little witch if you can see her thirty pieces of silver. That book was hard to come by, let me tell you. Can't imagine what she wants with it." Giles doesn't know what Ethan's talking about, and subsequent events distract Giles so that he forgets to ever follow up and ask Willow about the book. But the reader knows something that Giles does not: Willow is making plans to bring Buffy back from the dead. I never _refer_ to the Buffy-resurrection plan in that fic; the story ends before the summer does. But it gives me a gleeful, visceral thrill to think about my reader making the connection and saying to herself: "Oh my God, Willow got the book with the resurrection spell from Ethan!"

**3) I don't have to be embarrassed by the absurd world-building if it's canonical!**

I love playing with the worlds of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Once A Thief, but in both cases there are a lot of things about them that just _don't make sense_ , and I think that as a person, I am far too careful and serious and literal-minded to ever create a setting quite that nonsensical in original fiction. I mean, _one_ girl in all the world to fight the vampires and demons? And yet it's canonically established that there are multiple Hellmouths, and lots of dangerous demonic activity even away from the Hellmouths. One Slayer is seriously not nearly enough! Or, in Once A Thief—a shadowy government agency (referred to, canonically, by characters and by onscreen title cards, as "A Shadowy Government Agency") operating in Canada, whose agents regularly engage in over-the-top, Hong-Kong-'90s-action-movie-style shootouts in downtown Toronto with explosions galore, and nobody particularly notices? I would blush to make up such a thing! But, playing by the rules of fanfic: if it's in canon, it is _true_. Certainly it can be fun to _address_ the absurdities in fic, sometimes, but then it can also be totally fun to just roll with them.

**4) Hurt/Comfort is a canonical tag on AO3.**

(with 312789 works and counting)

Speaking of things that fanfic relieves me from being embarrassed by! I love writing hurt/comfort. It occurs as an element in nearly all of my stories. And I love the fact that in the context of fanfic, that's not weird. It's part of the landscape. I can tag appropriately.

**5) A fic can be any shape, any size.**

Drabbles are a thing! I don't write them very much; I prefer writing novels, apparently. But writing a drabble can provide a very quick hit of delight. I'm still super-happy with my ten-year-old drabble [The Happiest Day](https://archiveofourown.org/works/77379), about Buffy and Angel's wedding!

The world of fanfic can accommodate any form of story. There are no rules! I don't need to know ahead of time how long a story will be, or even necessarily whether it's going to have a _plot_. If the thing turns out to be just one little schmoopy scene that goes nowhere, that's okay! In 2007 I wrote a [216-word fic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/92064) in which Spike paints Xander's nails. That's the only thing that happens. It has 26 kudos on AO3! (To be fair, that's an average of about 2 kudos a year since it was posted...) On the other hand, in the course of writing my recent Once A Thief series, I started writing what was _meant_ to be a short, schmoopy epilogue to the case-fic, in which I just wanted Mac to get some hugs, and it turned into a 37,000 word story (in which Mac got lots and _lots_ of hugs). And it was delightful to just let the fic take the shape that it wanted to take!

* * *

Okay, that was five things! That's in no way a complete list, but it's probably enough for now. Feel free to mention your own favourite things about writing fanfic in the comments, if you feel so inclined!


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